Read Online The Spider's Touch by Patricia Wynn - Free Book Online

there something I can help you with?” she said, turning to face him. She was uncomfortably aware of being in a small space with him alone.
    “Yes. I should like your opinion of a gentleman you may have met, a Captain Potter.”
    Hester was puzzled by the request, but she answered, “I hardly know him at all. Merely that he is a friend of Lord Lovett’s and Sir Humphrey Cove’s.” She remembered Captain Potter from the night of Isabella’s drawing-room, a man with a frowning disposition, which, in view of the frivolous nature of his hosts, he had tried to overcome. “Lord Lovett brought him once to this house. But I have never been in conversation with him. Why do you ask?”
    Disappointment laid a crease in James Henry’s brow. “Colonel Potter has asked his lordship to engage him as his secretary. Lord Lovett recommended him to my lord’s notice, but that is all I know about him. I hoped you might have formed an opinion of his character. But you have never spoken to him? Never heard anything said about him?”
    Hester shook her head. “The only time I saw him, he was very intent on speaking to my lord. But I did not overhear their conversation.”
    “You truly heard nothing?” he asked, searching her face. Then, realizing that he had as much as accused her of eavesdropping, he had the grace to laugh. “Pray forgive me. I did not mean that the way it sounded. I simply hoped you might have overheard something that could help.”
    She smiled. “No, but if it was employment he wanted, I doubt that his conversation was very revealing. Does his interest trouble you for any particular reason?”
    He began a denial, but after seeing her skeptical gaze, he sighed, and said, “Yes, it does. Did you hear of the trouble in the Foot-Guards?”
     “Yes, Sir Humphrey brought us the news. He saw them burning their shirts when he was on his way here. And I read in the news-sheets that some of the soldiers threw their flaming shirts into the garden at the Palace and over the fence at Marlborough House.”
    James Henry gave her a sober look. “Unfortunately, that was not all. The news-sheets did not report the worst, but it is known in the street. While they were rioting, those soldiers were shouting Jacobite slogans. They called for the Pretender and the Duke of Ormonde and would not disperse until Ormonde appeared and promised them that the shirts would be replaced.”
    Hester understood his unease. “Colonel Potter was here with us that evening. Sir Humphrey thought he would want to know about the riot, so he could help control the men. I cannot say that the Colonel showed much concern. In fact, he only left because my lord urged him to do it. Do you think he lacks good judgement, or a proper sense of responsibility?”
    James Henry shook his head. “No, my fears are much greater than that. The Whigs are saying that the Foot-Guards are rife with Jacobites. They say the former ministry put adherents of the Pretender in the Guards so they would turn against King George when the Pretender comes. And there is evidence that this true. At some of the riots this past month, members of the Life-Guards have been heard cheering for James Stuart.”
    He looked at Hester, and his expression was very serious. “Whether Colonel Potter is a Jacobite or not, I must protect this house from any hint of treason. Mr. Walpole is gathering evidence, some of which may be true, but some which is surely to be exaggerated. It is my duty to warn Lord Hawkhurst, for he must never be believed to harbour any Jacobite sentiments.”
    Hester wondered if James Henry knew that his own father had been a Jacobite. He must have known something about the former Lord Hawkhurst’s sympathies. But St. Mars had sacrificed his own good name to preserve his father from the taint of treason. And his older son would do no less to save the Hawkhurst estates from attainder
    She said, “I would not like to ruin anyone’s chance at a livelihood, unless reasonably